Hey All,

Just wanting to know if my mechanic is about to rip me off...... (yeah I know)

My starter motor has been making a horrible sound (like a spoon down an insinkerator) sometimes on startup.

Mechanic says its the ring gear that is making the sound, and it needs to be replaced.

He reckons to do this he has to remove the gearbox which will take 7 hours labour.

My vehicle is a 93 Hilux Surf Diesel.


I will need to get the work done regardless, but just wanting a second opinion before I book in with him. 7 hours seems like a long time to take out a gearbox, but since I know nothing about mechanics I thought I'd ask you lot.

Cheers

Chris

PS could the rebuilt ECU be at fault, causing the stripping of teeth on the ring gear? I noticed that as soon as my computer was rebuilt a few months ago the problem started.... or just another unlucky conicidence?

Not the ECU, that much is clear.

7 hours seems legit if the there's some quirks in getting to it. I did one once in old escort and IIRC it involved freeing the engine and jacking it up & out a bit to be able to remove g/b. PITA

/not a mech

Chris, yep 7 hours has a bit of fat in it, but he has to make a $, and if you trust him then it should be jake.
Just had my gearbox done, and labour was from a dedicated gearbox place a little less than that, but they were chasing the box rebuild as business, so hours to remove and install, plus fit up a new clutch kit and skim flywheel.
Now in saying that, the ring gear must be real shot for him to need to replace it, but age of vehicle my be contributing factor
To do this he will need to pull flywheel, remove old ring gear, heat the new and shrink fit to your current flywheel, so box and clutch kit out first to do.
Just for peace of mind, when he gets it ready to do and pulls the starter motor, fit the replacement "first" and test, before anything else is removed.. Its not hard to test and three bolts, plus cable remove and install. Be a pain in the you know what to find out all you really needed to do was just the starter.

^ wot Mins said,

Drop the starter motor first and have a look at the cog to see if it's teeth are worn out,

Even easier- most vehicles have a pressed sheet metal guard bolted under the bell housing- in front of the gearbox.

Undo a couple of bolts, and look at the ring gear yourself [might need a decent torch and mirror]

You will need to turn the motor over so you can check out all of the teeth.

stephen

Sounds about right fair amount of work involved fair chance the starter motor drive gear will be shagged as well.

And while he is in there, may as well do clutch, thrust bearing and spigot.

bugger it just buy a new car.

The boat probably needs upgrading as well

Cheers for the replies fellas.

Since I don't know much about mechanics I'm gonna have to trust him, other jobs he's done have been reasonably priced and I have been happy with the quality of the job. I thought I'd better ask about this one because it was a real surprise as I had only expected the job to be a couply of hundy.

Elmo, I agree with you but am in that predicament where it is still a slightly better option to repair a car I have had for 4 years and know it's service history than go buy another cheap car that could come with a whole raft of hidden problems.

The wife is slowly getting around to setting up her own business, so once that happens (next couple of years) we will buy a couple of cars for the business which I'll use.


Thanks for taking the time to reply :)